Robert A. Benson: Why R.I. firefighters are wildly expensive

In a Jan. 28 Commentary piece, Elizabeth Dolan, president of the North Kingstown Town Council, described the issues surrounding the council’s attempts to rein in the cost of the town’s fire-safety services...

Comment

By
Robert A. Benson
Posted Feb. 24, 2014 @ 12:01 am

In a Jan. 28 Commentary piece, Elizabeth Dolan, president of the North Kingstown Town Council, described the issues surrounding the council’s attempts to rein in the cost of the town’s fire-safety services (“Can elected officials protect taxpayers?”). The town’s position is that it cannot afford these services unless its unionized firefighters make concessions.

She points out that the average firefighter in North Kingstown costs the town over $100,000 a year. She is absolutely right. In fact, Rhode Island’s firefighting costs are the highest or second highest in the country, according to the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (see “How R.I. Compares,” at http://www.ripec.org).

Why do firefighting services cost so much here? Is it because state legislators have enacted laws awarding public safety workers “binding arbitration” rights that essentially let firefighters contest any decision the town makes concerning their pay and benefits? Yes. Is it because our legislators have created independent fire districts with their own taxing authority, such as the Central Coventry Fire District? Yes. Is it because the legislature has enacted minimum manning laws that dictate how many firefighters must be aboard a fire truck and be present at a fire? Yes.

Binding arbitration laws let a three-member arbitration panel make awards to either the management or union side in disputes where the two cannot agree. Rhode Island’s binding-arbitration laws even let an arbitrator simply base an award on a prior award, without requiring the arbitrator “to set forth any findings of fact and conclusions of law supporting the award” (see Rhode Island Dept. of Corrections v. Brotherhood of Correctional Officers).

One of the factors the arbitrators must consider is the “community’s ability to pay.” Considering how high Rhode Island’s fire-safety costs are, as detailed in the RIPEC reports, it appears the arbitrators do not give this much consideration at all. So our mayors, town managers and town councils really have very little say in these disputes.

Compounding the high cost of each firefighter is that we have too many unionized firefighters in Rhode Island. Even a cursory examination of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census data reveals that Rhode Island is high on a list of states that measure the number of firefighters per 10,000 residents. For example, the last Cranston Fire Department Performance Audit revealed that 148 cities in the same population range as Cranston’s would have needed 111 uniformed/sworn firefighter personnel in 2003. In that same year, the department had 202 uniformed/sworn personnel, almost double the number in comparably sized cites.

The primary reason our legislators enact these laws is because they know that, if they don’t, the union bosses will tell their members to vote against them in the next election. Over time this process has resulted in a situation where legislators get re-elected, but the cost of our public employee unions is bankrupting the state and some of its cities and towns, ŕ la Central Falls. Our elected municipal officials have their hands tied by state laws that favor public employee unions at taxpayer expense.

Our government at both the state and municipal levels is not only too big, but too costly. According to the Cato Institute, 71 percent of Rhode Island’s state and local government workers are union members, second only to New York’s 73 percent. This same Cato report indicates that unionized state and local government workers have higher wages and benefits than non-union state and local workers, with the union workers enjoying “a 31 percent advantage in wages and a 68 percent advantage in benefits.” As a result, our state and local tax burden is sixth-highest in the country, according to The Tax Foundation.

The high cost of government and the resultant high taxes are major contributors to Rhode Island’s high unemployment rate. Businesses steer clear of locations where the taxes are excessive, and they relocate when the cost of government becomes onerous.

Nothing will change this situation until we elect lawmakers who have the courage to repeal or at least modify these anti-taxpayer, anti-management laws. State legislators enacted these laws, but now they need to take the handcuffs off our mayors and town councils before any more of our cities and towns go under.

We don’t need to outlaw public sector unions, but our elected officials must be able to balance the union demands with the taxpayer’s ability to pay for these demands. We also need more municipal leaders like Elizabeth Dolan who are fighting for the taxpayers instead of special interests.

Robert A. Benson is a resident of North Kingstown and a member of Operation Clean Government and Common Cause of Rhode Island. The opinions expressed in this piece are solely his own.